Bulgaria short of 1200 teachers for the school year

The new school year will start with a significant shortage of teachers - about 200 in Sofia alone and nearly 1,000 in the rest of the country. This was announced by Assen Alexandrov, chairman of the Association of Directors in Secondary Education, who warned that filling these vacancies would be a major challenge.

"Usually, when a teacher retires at the end of the school year, his or her replacement is chosen in June or July at the latest," Assen Alexandrov explained.

The shortage of teachers is mainly in mathematics, computer science, Bulgarian language and literature, foreign languages and science.

"There are ten times more candidates for customs officers than for teachers," the head of the association said.